diff --git a/openerp/addons/base/tests/test_translate.py b/openerp/addons/base/tests/test_translate.py
index 40cf960873c..95b306e1837 100644
--- a/openerp/addons/base/tests/test_translate.py
+++ b/openerp/addons/base/tests/test_translate.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 # Part of Odoo. See LICENSE file for full copyright and licensing details.
 
+from lxml.etree import XMLSyntaxError
 import unittest
 from openerp.tools.translate import quote, unquote, xml_translate, html_translate
 
@@ -41,6 +42,29 @@ class TranslationToolsTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertItemsEqual(terms,
             ['Form stuff', 'Blah blah blah', 'Put some more text here'])
 
+    def test_translate_xml_text(self):
+        """ Test xml_translate() on plain text. """
+        terms = []
+        source = "Blah blah blah"
+        result = xml_translate(terms.append, source)
+        self.assertEquals(result, source)
+        self.assertItemsEqual(terms, [source])
+
+    def test_translate_xml_text_entity_unescaped(self):
+        """ Test xml_translate() on plain text with HTML entities. """
+        terms = []
+        source = "Blah blah blah"
+        with self.assertRaises(XMLSyntaxError):
+            xml_translate(terms.append, source)
+
+    def test_translate_xml_text_entity(self):
+        """ Test xml_translate() on plain text with HTML escaped entities. """
+        terms = []
+        source = "Blah blah blah"
+        result = xml_translate(terms.append, source)
+        self.assertEquals(result, source)
+        self.assertItemsEqual(terms, [source])
+
     def test_translate_xml_inline1(self):
         """ Test xml_translate() with formatting elements. """
         terms = []
diff --git a/openerp/tools/translate.py b/openerp/tools/translate.py
index 3287547c790..07b587d1467 100644
--- a/openerp/tools/translate.py
+++ b/openerp/tools/translate.py
@@ -286,8 +286,7 @@ def html_translate(callback, value):
     trans = XMLTranslator(callback, 'html')
     wrapped = "<div>%s</div>" % encode(value)
     root = etree.fromstring(wrapped, etree.HTMLParser(encoding='utf-8'))
-    # html > body > div
-    trans.process(root[0][0])
+    trans.process(root[0][0])               # html > body > div
     return trans.get_done()[5:-6]           # remove tags <div> and </div>